Three stories of our members supporting each other to build better democracies
/The movement of participatory and deliberative democracy is growing and expanding worldwide. People Powered members are growing too in experience, knowledge and skills, but the path towards a world where people have the power to make government decisions is still long and challenging.
To support the innovative work our members do, we provide spaces for members to share, learn from each other, and build relationships, and provide spaces and support for joint fundraising.
Here are some examples of how our members work together and support each other.
Collaboration #1: Taking legislative theater to Colombia to rebuild trust in democracy
A group photo during the Legislative Theater sessions in Buanaventura
In Spring 2023, three of our members— Aluna Serrano from Extituto de Política Abierta, Fernanda Asseff Menin from Politize! and Katy Rubin, Legislative Theater practitioner, embarked on an adventure to Buenaventura, Colombia. Their goal in Buenaventura was to co-design and prototype a project that asked the question: How can participatory processes, such as legislative theater, help rebuild trust in situations of socio-environmental conflict? This project was part of ‘’The Democracy Residencies”, a program that our members proposed and decided to fund through PP Decides — our yearly participatory planning process. It was done in partnership with ‘’Extituto de Politica Abierta’’. During their time there, they used legislative theater as a tool to engage with the community and address issues around water, safety and security, and trust.
After this shared experience, Aluna, Fernanda, and Katy, have stayed in touch — they exchange articles, reflections, and ideas on the topic. But it's not all work: they also have check-in calls to see how they're doing, which allows them to nurture a friendship that keeps on growing.
We've formed a team that I dream of working with again. What binds us together is our shared interest and work on trust and its impact on democracy. That's the guiding thread in our working relationship.
Aluna Serrano, Extituto de Politica Abierta
Collaboration #2: Translating a participation platform to be used on the other side of the world
Home page of the Parti Map Platform
In the Summer of 2023, two People Powered members—Alma Cívica and K-Monitor, collaborated on a project that improved resources for both organizations.
The story began when Alma Cívica, a dedicated organization based in Paraguay working to strengthen democracy and civic engagement, was looking for a participatory mapping platform. The tools they found were high-cost, too complex, or not in Spanish. But, through the People Powered community, they learned about Partimap — a user-friendly and free platform for participatory mapping, and connected with K-Monitor, an anti-corruption nonprofit from Hungary and one of the platform's creators. K-Monitor offered their source code, and Alma Cívica translated it into Spanish.
The project, initiated in July, was completed by the end of August, and the newly translated website empowered communities and enhanced civic participation across languages and borders. The leaders of this collaboration met through one of our communication channels — our WhatsApp members group.
Collaboration #3: Members supporting the design and implementation of the first Climate Assembly in Chile
One of the sessions of the Climate Assembly of the Lakes Region in Chile
Catalina Fernandez and her team at FIMA — a nonprofit dedicated to advancing environmental justice — were about to start planning the first Climate Assembly in Chile in 2022. However, despite this being the first process of this kind organized by FIMA and in the country, she mentions that they never felt alone in the process. This is because various members of People Powered, through the Climate Democracy Accelerator pilot program created in partnership with the World Resource Institute, provided mentorship during different moments of the process — Tarson Nuñez provided the idea of using a citizen’s assembly as the participatory mechanism, Kasia Pawłowska and Maria Jagaciak from the Shipyard Foundation provided guidance on the design of the assembly and Agustin Frizzera from Democracia en Red piloted an online deliberation platform.
Currently, they are waiting for the government's response to the 31 recommendations elaborated by the assembly participants for the implementation of the Regional Action Plan on Climate Change of the Lakes Region. Through a report where they will indicate the recommendations they will implement and how, based on a feasibility analysis.
These examples portray the collaborative and generous spirit of our members coming together to overcome barriers, enabling more citizens to engage in public life, and foster a transparent and democratic governance approach.
Being a member of People Powered allows you to connect with a network of organizations and individuals around the world doing amazing work on building a more participatory democracy. Our members directly implement, research, assist with, or advocate for participatory democracy programs. Being part of this peer network is one among many of the benefits of becoming a People Powered member.
